Edna M. Chappel

Edna was raised in a farming family in Alabama and enjoyed a lifelong passion for gardening. She was known to create amazing vegetable plots even in small spaces and always grew the best collards in the land. Her fig trees were legendary and many a summer was made even hotter by cooking up jam for canning.

Edna saved her money as a teen to realize her desire to become a nurse, graduating from Sacred Heart Nursing School in Pensacola, Florida. With her first paycheck from nursing she proudly purchased a fine china set from the jewelry store, still used today for special occasions!

As a registered nurse, Edna joined the Air Force with some girlfriends to “see the world,” later joking that her post after initial training was to Biloxi, Mississippi—very close to her hometown of Florala, Alabama. The Air Force introduced her to James, her surviving husband of 60 years. Jim and Murph, as he called her, left the Air Force to build a life with daughter Linda Chappel, now of Durham, North Carolina and son James Chappel of Columbus, Georgia.

As a working mother, Edna returned to school and earned her B.S. in Nursing from Columbus State University in 1979, the first woman in her family to complete a college degree. She also graduated from Emory University in 1982 with an advanced degree to become one of the Muscogee County Health Department’s first Family Nurse Practitioners. She was proud to have been in the forefront of HIV care in Columbus in the early years of the disease and was passionate about public health. Her career was trailblazing and served as an example for commitment to care.

Being a grandmother was her true vocation and her boys, Tyler, Thomas and Patrick Chappel were like gold to her. She was forever enamored of their accomplishments. She was also blessed with lifelong friends, especially Mary Miller and the ladies in the retired nurses Coffee Club. Edna was preceded in death by her cherished mother Dora Bass Murphy and her father Everett and siblings, Alton, Dorothy, Lilly Mae and Bobby.

Our family thanks the many kind friends, companion caregivers and the hospice team who shared their love in the years in which Alzheimer’s disease tested our strength. Edna will be remembered for her humor, strong opinions, holiday dressing recipe, and most of all love.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to a memory care organization such as the Duke Dementia Family Support Program, https://dukefamilysupport.org/giving. Donations can also be mailed to: Duke Dementia Family Support Program, Box 3600 DUMC, Durham, NC 27710.

For those who wish to pay their respects, there will be visitation from 2:00 - 3:00 pm at Striffler-Hamby Mortuary, Columbus, GA on Sunday, May 9, 2021 with services to follow at 3:00 pm. Burial will be on Monday, May 10, 2021 at Fort Mitchell National Cemetery at 1:00 pm.